Female vampires once ruled the world. Now they are overlooked for glittering guys with big hair. It's time to point out why the female of the species should be the center of attention.
The Gist: It's Dracula but in India instead of England and modern
Clarification: They're pretty true to the source material. It's a Bollywood movie so it's extremely long and there are musical numbers. Also the Christianity aspect has been removed and replaced with Hindu as is in most cases of vampire films in India.
Biggest Complaint: No turn for Meena in this one. She goes temporarily evil but no fangs.
Female Vampire Factor: It's your standard fair for a Dracula story. I do have to say, Dracula's 2nd female victim Taara in the film is seriously hot (Shraddha Das).
Towards the beginning of the film there's also a musical number featuring a number of female vampires.
If you know your Dracula then you know the other female vamp. Lucy (Priya Nambiar) gets turned and you have your scene when she goes after a child.
Without Meena fanging out the bride scene is the best vampire scene in the film that only has a few scenes with female vampires. I give it a Vampire Beauty Rating of 3 out of 5. The three scenes in the film are good but you have to sit through a nearly two and a half hour film to see them.
The Gist: Dracula sets his sites on a young woman who is about to become a nun.
Clarification: This is apparently director Rupesh Paul's attempt at telling a Dracula story as if it was a Shakespeare play. Specifically it's a Shakespeare style romantic tragedy. One that consists of Dracula raping nuns in the middle of the night. The movie is ridiculously hard to follow because it is formatted like a play with scenes cut together with really nothing tying them in. Basically a scene starts and you have to wait until you get enough info from the dialogue to be able to place what's going on and where it lays in the timeline of the film.
Selling Point: If you've been looking for a 3D Dracula film without those scary giant praying mantises in it. This is the one for you.
Female Vampire Factor: Dracula does have a "Bride" (she's more like a henchperson really). She's seen as his snack in the films first half hour. Spurts some fangs and pretty much disappears after that. She's played by actress Anna Passey.
This is the only time you see her fangs to my recollection. She actually does attack a few people in the films very beginning but you really don't see the attacks just her showing up then the shot changing and her victim screaming.
Since she exists and is attractive it's enough to give it a vampire beauty rating of 2 out of 5.
The Gist: A Vampire Count sets his sites on the wife of the librarian he hired to work at his home.
Clarification: Yep, Jonathon Harker is a Librarian now. So basically Dario Argento took the Dracula story, changed several aspects to where there were less characters (I guess less actors to pay) and replaced the lack of characters with horribly bad CG effects.
Look out for the video game praying mantis
So this is pretty much Argento's attempt to "Hammer Horror" Dracula into his own character so to speak. In this version he's an old school horror monster who pretty much just murders everyone in his path by turning into CG monsters like the Praying Mantis above which usually results in very bloody "B" movie graphic style gore.
Selling Point: I assume this would be much more interesting in 3D which the film was originally shot for. Also there is quite a bit of female vampire nudity.
Female Vampire Factor: This version has two. The first is the promiscuous village girl Tanja played by Miriam Giovanelli
Tanja is seen at the beginning of the film having sex with her boyfriend then refusing to hold on to his cross and walking home through the woods at night by herself. Dracula ends up getting to her which is the first piece of action prior to the opening credits. From that point on her role becomes that of the female vamps used in the Hammer Horror's Dracula series where she lives in Dracula's castle masquerading as his "niece" to unsuspecting visitors but constantly plots to take Dracula's victims for herself. This was a plus as Dracula's brides hardly ever get a backstory and this actually explains why Dracula is so easily upset with them (or this case her since she's the only one) for going after Harker. As you can see above she's a blonde so I'm not quite sure why they thought to put a horribly fake looking blonde wig on her but at least her role is very clothing optional.
Next you have Lucy Kisslinger who is played by Dario Argento's daughter Asia Argento.
Now despite the fact that she is on the cover art of the DVD as a vampire she is only a vampire in the film for one scene. Her role as Lucy follows the book for the most part where she is Mina's best friend who happens to get seduced and turned by Dracula first. She then rises from her crypt, goes after a child and Van Helsing (played by Dracula Veteran Rutger Hauer) puts a stake to her when she comes back to her crypt with the child in hand. If you've seen a Dracula movie before you know what scene I'm talking about since it's in most of them.
So most reviews agree that the movie is pretty bad with some saying it's entertainingly bad while others just saying avoid it altogether. If you're a fan of female vamps then this film does have some entertainment value as Tanja is a major character in the film but fact is the film is terrible. As far as a Vampire Beauty Rating it gets a 4 out of 5 because they're their and they have purpose but not sure if sitting through the film is really worth it.
The Gist: A young coed and her room mate are targeted by a sorority of homicidal vampires to become it's newest members.
Clarification: This is one of those bad movies that would show up on the USA Network at about 3 in the morning if NBC Universal didn't buy the network and use it as the outlet channel for Law and Order reruns. The best warning I can give before attempting to watch this film is that I'm 95% sure it was accidentally edited out of order (I should mention that the version I saw was the 3D addition). Not that it would really matter considering the story structure even if in order is all over the place though I've reviewed movies that are WAY less watchable than this with the same problem. So when you get to things happening like a vampire both having a heart to heart in the bedroom with another vamp while having a fight in the kitchen with a victim trying to escape seemingly at the same time, you're inclined to give it a pass as by that point there really are no expectations for the film.
Selling Point: Most feeding scenes are preceded by a sexy strip tease.
Female Vampire Factor: By my count only 2 guys get actual purpose outside of being an immediate victim meaning that the majority of the cast is female. All the vampires that get any screen time are women and unlike many low budget "Hey, we have a camera and a computer, lets make a film" style movies like this the women are at the WORST an 8 out of 10. That means if you're easily distracted by hot girls then you'll hardly notice the ridiculous amount of bad acting and story flaws that makes this movie very comical unintentionally.
Eliza (above played by Deborah Huber) is the head vampiress of the sorority and also the oldest. Despite us being told repeatedly in the film that she is the most dangerous of the group she actually does the least amount of killing as far as victims go and just kind of shows up for the scraps. She can definitely be described as a snob and she's VERY bossy
The other two members of the sorority are Brandi (Anne Marie) and Rose (Phoebe Dollar). Brandy comes off as a follower who pretty much does whatever she's told without question. Rose on the other hand though just as slutty (these two are the ones who give naked strip shows throughout the film) seems to have either a conscience or just more logic to question whether they should be more careful in how they're feeding. Unfortunately for her that eventually puts her on Eliza's bad side.
Then we have our lovely coeds Melissa (Kerry Lui) and Tracy (Erica Howards). Tracy is the one the group actually wants but Melissa just kind of tags along as she has nothing better to do since she comes off as a bit of a slacker (breaking every stereotype about Asian college students set by the Harold and Kumar film series). I guess that comes into play after the two are initiated into the sorority and Tracy fights it while Melissa pretty much gives in immediately (below).
Though I don't condone irresponsible drinking, I've got to say that a pretty good drinking game to this movie would be to drink every time Tracy freaks out about something. I don't know whether it's the acting or the character is written this way but she is just awkward. Her reaction once she finds out that Melissa killed her "boyfriend" was easily the most funny and annoying thing I've every laid my eyes on (no matter what emotion the character seems to be dealing with it just comes off as whiny and nagging). I will give the film a Vampire Beauty Rating of 4 out of 5 as it has plenty of sex appeal but this is more of a film to watch if you enjoy laughing at absurdity.
